Don Gaetz defends staff members’ salaries

State Sen. President Don Gaetz has been criticized across Florida for big salary increases given to members of the management team he selected to run his office.

TOM McLAUGHLIN / Daily News

State Sen. President Don Gaetz has been criticized across Florida for big salary increases given to members of the management team he selected to run his office.

An article that first appeared in the Miami Herald noted that Gaetz nearly doubled the salary of Chris Clark, who will serve as his chief of staff, by raising it from $77,000 to $150,000.

It also points out that Gaetz raised the salary of communications director Katie Betta by $13,000 to $120,000, and Lisa Vickers, his governmental operations specialist, by $15,000 to $135,000.

Vickers left her job as head of the Florida Department of Revenue to work for Gaetz.

The news article and numerous blogs and editorials point out that Gaetz’s staff got raises even though state workers have not received pay increases in six years.

“It’s not so much the amount of money as the principle of the thing,” said an editorial on Ocala.com, a website associated with the Ocala Star-Banner.

Given an opportunity to defend his actions — something he said he was not afforded by the Miami Herald, Gaetz did so point by point.

He said to imply that his staff raises were unfair because state employees hadn’t received cost of living increases was “a little awkward.”

“Even though state employees have not received raises, state employees have received promotions,” Gaetz said. “Over the past six years thousands of state employees have been promoted and as a consequence have been paid more.”

Clark, Gaetz said, had been promoted from a chief of staff for a single senator to “basically a chief operating officer for an entire state.”

He said Betta was promoted from director of communications to deputy chief of staff. She will oversee Senate communications and “majority office functions,” he said.

Gaetz said that while the South Florida newspapers pointed out the amount of the raises his staffers were given, they failed say that Clark was being paid $25,000 less than either of two chiefs of staff employed by outgoing Senate President Mike Haridopolos.

Craig Meyer and Steve McNamera, who served at different times as Haridopolos’ chief of staff, made $175,000, Gaetz said.

“Chris Clark took a significant pay cut when he came to work for me six years ago,” Gaetz said. “When I became Senate President I could have done what Haridopolos did and give some other high-paid individual the position. I decided to choose someone who I had worked with.”

Gaetz also provided figures indicating his office is paying less in staff salaries than either of the two pervious Senate presidents.

President Jeff Atwater’s “salary load” was $1.146 million, Gaetz said, and Haridopolos paid $1.292 in salaries (an amount that included the cost of two contract employees.)

Gaetz said his salary load is $1.13 million.

He said he interviewed “lots of people” before choosing his senior management staff.

“The Florida Senate oversees a $70 billion budget and the Senate itself employs several hundred. This is a complex and significant operation, like operating a fairly large company,” Gaetz said.

“I believe that I’m blessed with a senior staff good enough that if I were to run a large private-sector company, I would be proud to have these individuals as a management level staff.”